michael santoly, it's great to have both of you with us. where does this stand right now? >> right now they're negotiating and things are being worked out behind closed doors by the top leaders in the house and senate and the white house, but particularly on the senate side right now and the question is can the senate leaders get together and come up with a plan that can pass through the senate that will at least give us a band-aid to prevent all these fiscal cliff measures from kicking in. but then after that can it pass the house of representatives and will speaker john boehner be able to find a way to get it through that might require actually mostly democratic votes which will leave republicans very unhappy with him. you'll have a couple of needles to thread here. it's still in my view a long shot. you've got to get the senate plan figured out and get it through the house. even then it's probably just a band-aid solution. >> how much more likely is the senate able to strike a deal here? >> i think the senate is a little more likely. in recent history the senate has bee